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Chris Van Hollen: The House Democrats’ budget will balance by 2040

Rep. Chris Van Hollen’s remarks came on the heels of mounting Republican criticism that Democrats have not been serious about balancing the budget.

“We believe that our projections show that the budget we will submit will actually balance,” Van Hollen (D-Md.) said on NBC News’s “Meet The Press.” “It will balance at the same time the Republicans’ budget balanced last year — which is out in the future, around 2040.”

House Republicans released a blueprint last week that would balance the budget by 2023, while Senate Democrats’ proposal doesn’t promise to do so. And in an interview last week, President Obama said, “My goal is not to chase a balanced budget just for the sake of balance,” a posture that has come under GOP criticism.

I think that the squishy middle 10% of the country can’t even buy that line. They may worry that they won’t get invitations to Dem parties. But if the Dems are that unserious, maybe they’ll start voting for conservatives even if they do so with brown paper bags over their heads, all the while expressing astonishment at those who’d ever dream of voting for the fiscal meanies.